I went to Staten Island.To buy myself a mandolinAnd I saw the long white dress of loveOn a storefront mannequinBig boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars,All for something lacySome girl's going to see that dressAnd crave that day like crazy

Little Indian kids on a bridge up in CanadaThey can balance and they can climbLike their fathers before themThey'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skylineShine your light on me Miss LibertyBecause as soon as this ferry boat docksI'm headed to the churchTo play BingoFleece me with the gamblers' flocks

I can keep my cool at pokerBut I'm a fool when love's at stakeBecause I can't conceal emotionWhat I'm feeling's always written on my faceThere's a gypsy down on Bleecker StreetI went in to see her as a kind of jokeAnd she lit a candle for my love luckAnd eighteen bucks went up in smoke

Sharon, I left my manAt a North Dakota junctionAnd I came out to the "Big Apple" hereTo face the dream's malfunctionLove's a repetitious dangerYou'd think I'd be accustomed toWell, I do accept the changesAt least better than I used to do

A woman I knew just drowned herselfThe well was deep and muddyShe was just shaking off futilityOr punishing somebodyMy friends were calling up all day yesterdayAll emotions and abstractionsIt seems we all live so close to that lineAnd so far from satisfaction

Dora says, "Have children!"Mama and Betsy say-"Find yourself a charity."Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology."Well, there's a wide wide world of noble causesAnd lovely landscapes to discoverBut all I really want right nowIs, find another lover

When we were kids in Maidstone, SharonI went to every wedding in that little townTo see the tears and the kissesAnd the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gownAnd walking home on the railroad tracksOr swinging on the playground swingLove stimulated my illusionsMore than anything

And when I went skating after Golden ReggieYou know it was white lace I was chasingChasing dreamsMama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeansHe showed me first you get the kissesAnd then you get the tearsBut the ceremony of the bells and laceStill veils this reckless fool here

Now there are 29 skaters on Wolmann rinkCircling in singles and in pairsIn this vigorous anonymityA blank face at the window stares and stares and stares and staresAnd the power of reasonAnd the flowers of deep feelingSeem to serve meOnly to deceive me

Sharon you've got a husbandAnd a family and a farmI've got the apple of temptationAnd a diamond snake around my armBut you still have your musicAnd I've still got my eyes on the land and the skyYou sing for your friends and your familyI'll walk green pastures by and by